Handheld equipment holder with mechanical latch

ABSTRACT

A tool holder designed for battery operated power tools is attachable to a belt and has a quick release to allow access to the power tool. The tool holder grasps the power tool at the handle between the battery pack of the tool and the housing containing the operative part. The tool holder is made of a flat material such as metal or a high-density plastic and comprises a mechanical latch that secures the power tool within the holder until the user disengages the latch to allow removal of the tool.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention is related to holding equipment and moreparticularly holding hand held equipment at a users side when not inuse.

2. Description of Related Art

People working in the construction and repair industry often use toolbelts to keep small tools close at hand when not in use. Larger toolssuch as nail guns and electric drills are usually too bulky to becontained by existing tool belts; and therefore those larger tools arelaid aside when not in use. If the movement of the person using thelarger tools takes the person out of reach of the laid down tool, thenthat person must stop what they are doing and retrieved the tool.

Tool belts have been favorites of people who are in construction and arebuilding housing and commercial buildings; however these tool belts havelimitations and in general are limited to smaller hand tools. U.S. Pat.No. 6,848,605 (Dillenberger) is directed to an augmentation for a toolbelt wherein additional fixtures for holding tools are added to the toolbelt by sliding a male portion into a female portion attached to thetool belt. U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,390 (Karpati) is directed to abelt-mounted holder for spackling items comprising horizontal portionfor holding tools. U.S Patent Application 2007/0062013 (Mueller) isdirected to a carabiner device comprising a handle that can carrydevices around an area or as a work tool. Existing commercially are toolclips such as provided by Brigg Lugg, which have a belt clip and abungee ball that can be wrapped around a tool such as a drill, and aClip-Lock belt that carries a cordless drill of the same brand and canbe attached or detached with a simple motion of the hand or fingers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an objective of the present invention to provide a tool holder forhand held power tools.

It is further an objective of the present invention to provide thecapability for the tool holder to be coupled to the wearing apparel ofthe user.

It is also an objective of the present invention to provide a quickrelease of the hand held power tool from the tool holder.

The present invention is a tool holder for holding hand held power toolsat the side of a user. A flat strap like material, comprising metal or ahigh-density plastic, is shaped to form a belt loop and a tool loop, orpocket. The tool loop is shaped to hold a battery powered hand toll,such as a nail gun, a power hand drill and a power screwdriver, and isformed in part by the flat material and in part by mechanical latch, orgate, attached to the flat material. The mechanical latch is springloaded to keep the tool. loop closed except when the user disengages themechanical latch by pressing a thumb bar on the mechanical latch toallow the power tool contained within the tool loop to be removed by theuser. When a power tool is placed into the tool holder, the power toolis pressed against the mechanical latch by the user, which disengagesthe mechanical latch and allows the power tool into the tool loop. Themechanical latch is then allowed to close under the force of the springto maintain the power tool within the tool loop, or pocket, formed bythe flat material and the mechanical gate. The tool loop grasps thebattery operated hand held power tool between the battery power pack andthe housing containing the operational portion of the power tool.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

This invention will be described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of the side view of the tool holder of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2A is a top view of the tool holder of the present invention;

FIG. 2B is a cut a way view of the mechanical latch mechanism of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3A is a front view of the tool holder of the present invention; and

FIG. 3B is a back view of the tool holder of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In FIG. 1 is shown a side view of the tool holder 10 of the presentinvention. The tool holder is designed to hold hand held power tools,i.e. battery powered nail guns, battery powered screwdrivers and batterypowered drills or similar equipment, close to the user when the toolsare not in use. A flat material 11 made from metal, high-density plasticor other matter that can maintain a formed shape is used to form thetool holder 10. The tool holder can be thought of having two portions.The first portion is a belt loop 12 in which the material has beenfolded back and attached with fasteners 13 to the second portion of thetool holder 10. It should be noted that it is within the scope of thepresent invention that the tool holder is directly attached by fastenersto an existing tool belt or similar device without the need for the beltloop 12. The second portion forms a tool loop 14, or pocket, that holdsthe battery operated power tools when not in use.

A mechanical latch 15, or mechanical gate, is attached by fasteners 16to the first portion that forms the belt loop 12. The arm of mechanicallatch 15 is held is contact with a male latch element 17 on the end ofthe second portion by a spring 25 (FIG. 2B) to maintain a tool in thetool loop 14 while not in use. A thumb bar 18 allows a user to disengagethe mechanical latch 15 with the male latch element 17 and remove thebattery operated power tool from the tool loop 14.

The dimensions of the tool holder 10 are dependent upon the tools thatare to be held by the user. For exemplary purposes the approximatevertical height V is approximately about nine inches, the horizontalwidth H1 of the tool holder is approximately about four inches and thehorizontal width H2 of the tool loop 14 is approximately about threeinches. The hand held power tool is grasped by the tool loop 14 on thehandle between the battery power pack and the housing of the power toolcontaining the operating mechanism. It should be noted that it is withinthe scope of the present invention that the shape and dimensions of thetool holder 10 can be adjusted depending upon the tools that are to beheld within the tool loop 14 without changing the intent or claims ofthe present invention.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 1, with the tool holder 10 attached to abelt of the apparel of a user, a hand held power tool is placed into thetool loop 14 by pressing the tool on and past the arm of the mechanicallatch 15 after which the arm of the mechanical latch 15 is allowed toreturn to a closed position under the force of the spring 25 in contactwith the male latch element 17. The power tool is now contained withinthe tool loop 14. To remove a power tool from the tool loop, the userpresses the thumb bar 18, which disengages the mechanical latch 15 formthe male latch element and allows the power tool to be removed from thetool holder 10.

In FIG. 2A is show a top view of the tool holder 10. The arm of themechanical latch 15 is shown in contact with the male latch element 17at the end of the second portion of the tool holder 10. The thumb bar 8is shown coupled to one side of the arm of the mechanical latch 15. Itshould be noted that the thumb bar 18 can be on either or both sides ofthe arm of the arm of the mechanical latch to accommodate both righthanded and left handed users. The mechanical latch 15 is coupled to ahousing 22 that allows to the arm of the mechanical latch to pivot. Thehousing is attached to the first portion of the tool holder aspreviously described. FIG. 2B shows a cross section of the arm of themechanical latch 15 and the housing 22. A spring 25 is shown thatmaintains the arm of the mechanical latch 15 in contact with the malelatch element 17 except when overridden by the user when inserting atool in the tool loop or removing a tool from the tool loop.

FIG. 3A shows a front view of the tool holder 10. The housing 22 thatallows the arm of the mechanical latch 15 to rotate is attached to thefront part of the first portion of the tool loop, which forms the beltloop 12, using fasteners 16. FIG. 3B shows the back view of the toolholder 10 where the end of the material 26 in the first portion thatforms the belt loop is connected with fasteners 13 to the material ofthe second portion, which forms the tool loop 14. The width W of thematerial forming the tool holder 10 can be any dimension that is wideenough to accommodate the housing 22 of the mechanical latch and graspthe power tool between the battery power pack and the housing containingthe operative mechanism of the power tool. It should be noted that thetool holder 10 can be used with any tool in which a portion of that toolcan be held by the tool loop in part or in total, with and without abattery power pack.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A tool holder, comprising: a) an apparatus for holding hand heldpower tools close to an operator when the hand held power tools not inuse; b) said apparatus further comprises: (i) a belt loop, whereby theapparatus attached to wearing apparel of the operator; (ii) a tool loop,wherein a mechanical latch maintains the hand held power tool in thetool loop until needed by the operator; (iii) a thumb bar coupled tosaid mechanical latch; c) said power tools inserted into the tool looppast said mechanical latch; and d) said power tool removed from the toolloop by pressing said thumb bar.
 2. The tool holder of claim 1, whereinsaid belt loop is formed from a first portion of a material used to formsaid apparatus, whereby the first portion forms the belt loop fastenedto the material of a second portion of the material forming saidapparatus.
 3. The tool holder of claim 2, wherein said apparatus isformed from a metal material or a high-density plastic material.
 4. Thetool holder of claim 1, wherein said tool loop grasps a handle of thehand held power tools between a battery power pack location and ahousing enclosing an operational portion of the hand held power tool. 5.The tool holder of claim 1, wherein said hand held power tool furthercomprises: a) a battery powered nail gun; b) a battery powered drill;and c) a battery powered screw driver.
 6. A method of use for a toolholder, comprising: a) slipping a belt through a belt loop and fasteningthe belt at the waist of a user; b) pressing a hand tool into a toolloop past a mechanical latch mechanism and allowing said mechanicallatch to close an opening in the tool loop; c) pressing a thumb barlocated on said mechanical latch to disengage the mechanical latch; andd) removing said hand tool from the tool loop.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein said tool loop grasps the hand tool on the handle area between abattery power pack and a housing enclosing an operational portion of thehand tool.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein said hand tool furthercomprises: a) a battery powered nail gun; b) a battery poweredscrewdriver; and c) a battery powered drill.
 9. The method of claim 6,wherein said mechanical latch is spring loaded to hold the mechanicallatch in a closed position to maintain said hand tool in the tool loopuntil said user presses the thumb bar to disengage the mechanical latchand open the tool loop for removal of the hand tool.
 10. A holder forhand held power tools; comprising; a) a means for connecting a toolholder to wearing apparel of a user; b) a means for securely holding ahand held power tool in said tool holder; and c) a means for openingsaid tool holder for removal of said hand held power tool.
 11. Theholder of claim 10 wherein the means for connecting the tool holder towearing apparel is through a belt loop formed at an end of the toolholder.
 12. The holder of claim 10, wherein the means for securelyholding the hand held power tool is the combination of a tool loop and amechanical latch.
 13. The holder of claim 10 wherein the means foropening said tool holder is a thumb bar coupled to a mechanical latchthat is pressed by said user to allow removal of the hand held powertool.
 14. A method of assembly of a tool holder, comprising: a) forminga wide and flat strip of material with length sufficient to form apocket for a hand held power tool and attachment to apparel of a user;a) attaching a latch arm mechanism, which contains a spring, to a firstportion of the flat strip of material; c) folding an end of the firstportion away from the attached spring loaded latch arm mechanism andattaching the end of said first portion to the flat strip with fastenersto form the belt loop; d) forming a male latch element at the end of asecond portion of the flat strip of material; and e) forming said pocketwith the second portion of the flat strip of material, whereby thepocket forms a closed loop with said latch arm mechanism.
 15. The methodof claim 14, wherein said material is metal or a high-density plastic.16. The method of claim 14, wherein said spring holds the latch armmechanism in contact with the male latch element.
 17. The method ofclaim 14, wherein said male latch element couples to a female latchformation located at an end of the latch arm.
 18. The method of claim14, wherein said latch arm mechanism comprises a thumb bar whereby thelatch arm is disengaged from the male latch element.